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Private Lives

Coward's 1930s sparkling, witty comedy arrives at The Lyceum just in time for Valentine’s Day! Read more …

Private Lives follows the difficult relationship of divorced couple Elyot and Amanda, who, while honeymooning with their new spouses, discover that they are staying in adjacent rooms at the same hotel in the South of France. Cue Elyot and Amanda falling in love - and in hate - all over again as their bewildered new spouses Sibyl and Victor try to cope. Love is complicated!


The critical consensus

Grasping the rhythm and melody of the lines as well as the beats in between them, all the performances are of a very high order indeed.

****(*)Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 19/02/2014

Crisp in its physicality and punctilious in its delivery, Private Lives at the Royal Lyceum brings out the full verve of Noel Coward’s marvellous script, with director Martin Duncan giving his cast full rein in their authentically mannered delivery.

Thom Dibdin, The Stage, 19/02/2014

A lively and highly energetic piece that boasts exceptional acting.

****(*)Amy Taylor, The Public Reviews, 19/02/2014

Coward’s brilliant one-liners trip off the tongue, sometimes sounding a little harsher and less funny than they can do.

****(*)Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman, 21/02/2014

What this play really needs, however, is a production bursting with snap and fizz, and despite the best efforts of all, some of that elusive magic is still missing, and a production that flirts tantalisingly with something special ultimately falls just short.

***(*)(*)Hugh Simpson, All Edinburgh Theatre, 19/02/2014

It’s an energy that comes with youth and a certain naivety; the audience are merely voyeurs, there to laugh at them but also to envy the undeniable chemistry that makes them belong so wholly to each other. For that reason, it’s hard not to crave the satisfaction of a happy ending. And you won’t be disappointed.

****(*)Emma Hay, TVBomb, 21/02/2014

Sparkling, sassy, cool and classy, the laugh-a-minute humour is so intoxicating it hits the spot like an ice-cold Dirty Martini.

*****Vivien Devlin, Edinburgh Guide, 22/02/2014

Martin Duncan’s decidedly middling offering.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage (Sunday Herald), 26/02/2014

Noel Coward’s Private Lives is a visually and intellectually luscious performance, more than worthy of a viewing by anyone who professes themselves to be a lover of theatre.

****(*)Dale Neuringer, The Skinny, 17/03/2014


Features about Private Lives

Noel Coward's Private Lives set to return to Edinburgh, the city of its premiere

David Pollock, The List, 18/02/2014

Where and when?

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Friday February 14, 2014, until Saturday March 8, 2014. More info: www.lyceum.org.uk

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